


Don't Worry Steve, You've Got Me.

by HaywoodYouLikeSomeTea



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 1930s, Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Dancing, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hugging, M/M, Might hit you in the feels, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Visiting the museum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 08:14:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16552154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaywoodYouLikeSomeTea/pseuds/HaywoodYouLikeSomeTea
Summary: Hello and welcome to the Captain America tour, as you can see our workers here have tried their best to recreate the apartment that Captain America lived in when he was younger. You must understand that the apartment will not look completely accurate as the Captain finds it difficult to talk about those times, it was The Great Depression after all._______James just needs to remember. Based on a post I saw on Pinterest.





	Don't Worry Steve, You've Got Me.

"Hello and welcome to the Captain America tour, as you can see our workers here have tried their best to recreate the apartment that Captain America lived in when he was younger. You must understand that the apartment will not look completely accurate as the Captain finds it difficult to talk about those times, it was The Great Depression after all."  
Considering what she was talking about the tour guide was abnormally excited and happy. From what he'd researched, which was a fair amount, James knew that The Great Depression was a harsh time in America's history. James had become familiar with places like this, in order to understand his past and hopefully regain some memories he came here. The Captain America section in the museum had some facts about his and Steves history, but reading the same things over and over again made him frustrated. All of the information was from other peoples perspectives, what he and Steve were like in front of people rather than on their own. 

James had specific clothes that he wore when he was leaving the confines of his own apartment, ones that allowed him to blend in as much as possible. It was all rather basic, as long as there was no visible metal from his arm and his hair covered his face as much as possible he was ok. A Jacket, long sleeve t-shirt, jeans and a hat.

When James had heard about the new section in the museum was going to be a display of the living conditions from the time that he and Steve lived together his immediate thought was that it would help. He'd strolled down the streets of Brooklyn but the borough had changed so much through the years that while the roads seemed to match the photographs he'd seen, they didn't bring back any thoughts. Maybe, seeing something that was exactly the way it had been when he was... still himself, would do it. 

The opening day, July 4th as though it was a present to Steve to bring up memories from his past, James had walked in. The next day, James walked in. The day after, James walked in. This led to where he was now, on his third week in a row of coming to the museum. He knew that the staff at the museum found it weird that he came here so often, but they didn't mind because he donated every time. On his fifth visit, James had fainted, passed out and banged his head heavily on the floor. 

Knock. Knock.

James sat up, he was on a sofa. Surrounding him were walls made out of bricks, a dusty rug on the floor. 

"C'mon, Buck. Leave me in!" A voice called out from down the hallway, "It's cold out here."

Everything turned black, James felt like he was going to throw up. All he could hear was a bright loud noise.

"Sir? Are you ok?" The tour guide was leaning over him, her face was twisted with shock. 

"That couch is the wrong colour. It- it was darker than that, like..." James couldn't find a way to describe it, all that was coming to his mind was Steve.

"Let's get you to sit down, sir." The tour guide helped him stand up by grabbing his left arm. 

"No! No, I-I'm fine!" James rushed to his feet, ran out the door before opening it and placing his donation into the box at the front. 

His next few visits led to nothing new, but his thoughts were constantly reminded of the chilling voice he'd heard down the hallway. The tour guide asked him every visit if he was fine, to which his response was a quick nod of his head before blending into the crowd.

On his eighth visit, James noticed that the colour of the couch on display had changed. It was no longer the light shade of green, instead, it was dark. It seemed fitting for the time period in which he lived here, The Great Depression needed depressing decor. 

"Some of you may notice that the colour of the couch here has changed, this is because Captain America himself came to make some refinements. Now, welcome to the Captain America tour, as you can see our workers here have tried their best to create the very apartment that Captain America lived in when he was younger. You must understand that the apartment will not look completely accurate as the Captain finds it difficult to talk about those times, it was The Great Depression after all." 

An incident happened the next day, on the ninth visit. 

"Here you can see that the apartment that he lived in was a shared one. Captain Americas roommate, who you can read more about in the other section of the museum, was Bucky Barnes, they were best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steven Rogers were inseparable on both schoolyard and battlefield. This led to them living together before the war, unfortunately, Barnes was the only member of the Howling Commando's to lose his life in service of his country." The tour guide had a sad look on her face. This was something that they all said, every tour that James had been on said the same thing. But hearing it never hurt, he understood that he had died. But, he just didn't feel any emotion from it. 

Before he knew it, he was asking a question. "How did he pass miss?" 

The tour guide sighed, "In Bucky's file, he was reported as "Missing In Action", as his body was never found. Therefore, he was never officially classified as deceased. It is said that he fell into ice." James knew this, he'd read it before on the plaque about himself. He felt cold, a chill ran over his body before he fell onto the floor. 

When he opened his eyes he was crouched, as though he had just landed from a jump. in front of him was Steve, but not Steve. It was Captain America. He looked to his left and right, he was on a train, on top of a train. Surrounded by ice. James noticed that Steve had run ahead and began to follow him, climbing down the ladder and following Cap into the compartment of the train before quickly shutting the door. They both edged forward, the rush of the wind hitting the train blasting in his ears. They were both silents. He raised his gun, although he didn't tell himself to do so. It was as though someone else was controlling him like he felt when he was the Winter Soldier. Inside his mind, he began to panic, his thoughts got both colder and warmer. A fever broke out inside his own mind. 

Captain turned around to face him, this was when James knew that this wasn't Hydra in control. It was Bucky. The train doors closed with a sharp rush and both him and Steve were separated. Before James closed his eyes he saw Steve turn around with fear in his eyes. 

James opened his eyes to see Steve, but he was small. Steve looked afraid, the gaunt look on his face paired with the sadness in his eyes led James to put his arm around him. They were stood in their apartment, although as James looked around he saw that there was barely any of Steves things here. It looked as though it was before Steve had moved in. Upon looking down he noticed that the both of them were dressed in ill-fitting black suits. 

A funeral. Steves mothers funeral. 

"Buck, I... I've nothing left." Although he sobbed, no tears came from Steves' eyes. 

"Don't worry Steve, you've got me." James leaned into Steve. 

When he looked up he noticed that time was passing quickly, with each second he saw something new come into the apartment. He saw the place fill out with pieces of Steve, sketchbooks and pencils flooded the table. Boxes of medicine were placed on the kitchen counter, vegetables were piled up in his cupboards. He supposed that was his attempt to help Steve keep healthy. There were now small plants placed along the floor. While before Steve moved in the place looked sad, the small parts of extra life that Steve had added gave him hope.

He shut his eyes and was back in the museum. 

"Wait! There were sketches, on the table. Steve liked to draw. And he kept his medicine on the kitchen counter not the desk. Steve liked plants! So many small plants that he found outside, he could never just leave them there. Heh heh..." James laughed softly to himself before standing up and walking to the front of the museum and leaving his donation. 

Every day there were moments like that, where memories came back. Not all were good, times when Steve was ill and there seemed like no cure. Others when he found Steves sketches scattered all around the apartment, most of them were of Bucky. One time he remembered making coffee for Steve who was sat in bed, that was something that had seemed strange at the time he remembered it, the fact that there was one bed, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense. The time when Bucky had saved up enough money to buy a radio and spent the night dancing with Steve, they moved the furniture to the sides of the room. It was one of the happiest memories he'd had, they'd ended up napping on the floor exhausted after hours of excitement. He eventually worked up the courage to see the real sketches that Steve had drawn in the museum. Something strange was that there were hardly any of Bucky there. 

And now he was on his third week of visiting, the apartment now had fake plants and fake medicine boxes around the place. He figured that they couldn't place the actual sketches around the apartment because they were fragile with age but they had managed to add recreations. 

"Hello and welcome to the Captain America tour, as you can see our workers here have tried their best to recreate the apartment that Captain America lived in when he was younger. We're lucky today as we have a special guest! Captain America is here to answer any questions you have about the apartment and his time in Brooklyn. But please be nice!" The tour guide gestured to the man next to her, he was dressed casually. A white t-shirt, blue leather jacket and jeans. It looked good. He looked good. Bucky had purposely avoided everything on the news about Steve since their last encounter but after seeing younger Steve almost daily for the last few weeks it was certainly a shock. Bucky could still see the same Steve stood in front of him, inside his eyes he could see the determination from his younger years. 

"Hi, yeah if you have any questions then just go ahead. I'll try to answer them as well as I can." Steve smiled, the same curve on his mouth as the day Bucky had come home with the radio. Bucky smiled back, although he was at the back of the room hidden from view.

As they went around the room various questions were asked, "What was it like being in Brooklyn back then?" "How old were you when you moved here?" "What was your favourite thing to eat when you were growing up?" "Did you like coffee or tea?" With each question asked Bucky muttered an answer. 

"What was your favourite thing to draw?" A small girl at the front of the group asked. Bucky didn't know the answer. 

"Uhh well, people wise. Bucky, he had such nice features to draw." Steve looked down a sad smile on his face. 

Without thinking Bucky moved forward and asked a question, wanting to remove the sadness from Steves' face. "What did you and Bucky do in the evenings?" 

Steve kept looking down, his smile widening as he let out a chuckle. "We'd dance to the radio, he saved up so much money to buy that radio. I was so annoyed but we got our money's worth. We used to push the furniture to the corners and just..." He'd turned around to face the apartment. 

"Spend the evening dancing before falling to the floor and napping." Bucky took a few steps forward. Steve turned around. 

"I've been looking for you For so long." Steve moved towards Bucky. 

"Weren't looking too hard were you, Stevie, I've been coming here for weeks," Bucky smirked. 

Steve smirked back, obviously hearing the mocking tone in his voice. "I didn't think you'd come here, wasn't sure you'd want to."

"Had to get my memory back somehow." The crowd had split in order to allow the two of them to move towards each other. 

"Excuse me, sir. Captain is that who I think it is?" The tour guide looked shocked, to be fair to her she was looking at a man who died in 1945. 

"James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. Bucky. My best friend." Steve looked close to tears, the smile on his face was massive. 

"In the flesh. Now with added memories." From everything he had learned about himself, mainly that he was kind of a dick. He joked a lot, but Steve seemed to like it so it was fine. Steve ran the last few steps towards Bucky and wrapped his arms around him in a hug. It had been around 71 years since he'd had a hug and the warmth that encased him was an enormous contrast to the chill that had stayed with him since the memory of the train.

They stood for minutes, just holding each other.

"Buck, I... had nothing left." Although he sobbed, no tears came from Steves' eyes. 

"Don't worry Steve, you've got me." Bucky leaned into Steve.

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I just needed it. Thank you for reading it. 
> 
> My Tumblr is dracoisthebae and I post there sometimes.


End file.
